Workspaces & columns

A workspace is a board for one project folder, usually one repository. This page covers the workspace sidebar, editing and deleting workspaces, workspace logos, and managing a board's columns. To create your first workspace, see Your first workspace.

The sidebar

The sidebar on the left lists every workspace, in an order you choose. Each row shows:

• the workspace's badge: its logo, or the first letter of its name;
• its name, and under it the git branch its folder is on (local git repositories only);
• a server icon for an SSH workspace.

Hover a row to see its folder (host:folder for an SSH workspace). Click a row to show its board.

Under each workspace the sidebar lists its running cards and shells as a tree, each with its agent's logo and a status icon: a green dot while it runs, a spinner while its agent works, an amber bell while it is waiting for you, and an amber question mark while it needs your answer. Click one to open it, from whatever workspace you are in. While a workspace's Agent setup page is open, it is listed there too.

At the bottom of the sidebar are Update Available when there is an update, the sync status when a sync folder is set, and Settings.

Waiting counts

A card or shell is waiting when its agent shows Waiting for you or Needs your answer (see Activity & status). In the full sidebar, its row in the tree shows the bell or question mark. When the sidebar is collapsed, each workspace's badge carries a dot with the number of its cards and shells waiting (its tooltip reads, for example, 2 waiting for you).

Collapse the sidebar

The button at the top left of the sidebar (Collapse sidebar, then Expand sidebar) folds it down to the workspace badges, giving the board or the open card more room. Bikube doesn't remember it across restarts.

Reorder and switch workspaces

Drag a workspace's row to another place in the list; a line shows where it will land. From the keyboard, focus a row and press ⌥↑ / Alt+ArrowUp or ⌥↓ / Alt+ArrowDown to move it one place.

To switch workspaces, click a row, or press ⌘1…9 / Ctrl+1…9 for the first nine in sidebar order. While you hold that modifier, the badges show their numbers. The command palette also lists Switch to workspace for each one.

Edit a workspace

Above each workspace's board is its toolbar: Agent setup, Edit, Delete, and at the end New terminal. Edit opens the Edit workspace dialog with the same fields as when you created it (location, host, working directory, name, logo, view, default for new cards, worktree setup), plus two settings for a workspace shown as Kanban:

• Sort cards: how its columns order their cards; see Views.
• Move cards automatically: the workspace's automatic move rules; see Automatic moves.

Changing the folder, the host or the default for new cards affects new cards only. Every existing card keeps the directory, host and startup command it was created with, so editing a workspace never moves or restarts anything that is running.

Delete a workspace

Delete in the workspace toolbar asks first: Delete "<name>"? This removes its board. If any of its cards or shells are running, the confirmation says how many terminals will be stopped.

Deleting a workspace removes its board and its cards from Bikube. It never touches the workspace's folder, and it keeps the git worktrees of its Own worktree cards, since they may hold uncommitted work (the confirmation says so when there are any).

Columns

Each workspace's board has its own columns. A new workspace starts with Backlog, In Progress, Review and Done. Each column header shows its name, its number of cards and a ⋯ column menu.

Column names are unique within a workspace. A column can only be deleted when it is empty (otherwise the menu says Move or delete its cards first), and a board always keeps at least one column. Deleting a column that an automatic move rule names turns that rule off.

Card display limit

A long column folds after its first cards, with a Show all N cards button at its end (then Show fewer). How many cards show before it folds is the Card display limit in Settings, Appearance: 10 by default, from 1 to 100. The same limit folds each section of the grid view.

Workspace logos

A logo makes a workspace easy to spot in the sidebar and in the collapsed sidebar. Pick one under Logo in the Create or Edit workspace dialog: None shows the first letter of the workspace's name, and the other choices are 24 icons (Rocket, Code, Terminal, Globe, Database, Server, Chip, Bug, Flask, Book, Briefcase, Box, Cloud, Lightning, Flame, Leaf, Heart, Star, Music, Camera, Game controller, Shield, Wrench and Palette). The logo is saved with the workspace and synced with it.